Loss of technology jobs presents opportunity for trucking

Among the many challenges in the U.S. economy is the struggling labor market. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 0.5 workers available for every open position—the lowest in history.

Interestingly, companies in the tech industry have cut jobs. According to Crunchbase News, as of June, more than 22,000 workers in the U.S. tech sector have been laid off in mass job cuts. This includes major players such as Netflix, Coinbase, and Carvana.

See also: Determining when to adopt new technology

For the trucking industry, this represents an opportunity to better market the industry and its open roles as technology-centric. Trucking is a technology-enabled industry and needs to eliminate the stigma that it’s an old-school smoke-and-steel industry. This includes talking about things like telematics, software to optimize routing, driver management solutions, advanced driver assistance systems, the technology used to match freight with fleets, battery electric vehicles, predictive maintenance, and more.

The industry has a great need for tech-savvy candidates as it processes a lot of data from the multiple sensors on today’s trucks. If a fleet wants to improve its freight efficiency, it needs good data analytics and, therefore, data integrators and data analysts.

Having people proficient in the use of technology on staff can give a fleet a competitive advantage. The key is making trucking jobs attractive to tech industry employees. That must start with changing the way we describe the industry and making sure all hiring efforts focus to some degree on the incredible technology that is used every day by fleets and others in the industry.

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Patrick Gaskins, SVP of Corcentric Fleet Solutions, oversees both sales and operations for the company’s fleet offerings. Gaskins joined the company in 2010, bringing more than 30 years of experience as a financial services professional in the transportation industry. He leads a team that works with a supply base of more than 160 manufacturers to help the country’s largest fleets manage all aspects of their fleet operations and fleet-related spend.